MK

Hello again, internet! its been awhile, hasn’t it? Sadly enough, our recent food adventures have been… well pretty much non-existent, due to school and work and all sorts of mundanities. Lately, we’ve been living off of the frozen section at good old trader joe’s and hummus. Lots and lots of hummus. Oh, and there was that one lunch at loyola’s library where i discovered that they load up their buffalo chicken sandwiches with croutons (a story for another time…)

But all of our humdrum food woes ended this past weekend at MK… and so ends our 7 month-long hiatus over here at ohm nom nom! (yay)

birthday dinner menu for meee!

So, this birthday dinner was all planned out by mr. fooz, as evidenced by the personalized menus that we were presented with. He chose MK, a restaurant in river north that is super cozy and intimate… it felt like a loft converted into a restaurant and was very inviting. but also swanky and elegant!

We started off our dinner with a chilean blended wine that i picked out from the pages and pages of wine choices they had. Honestly, i know very little about wines, so i had to consult with MK’s very own wine sommelier before making a choice. Trust me, it was all VERY grown up.

our wine, decanted.

So, MK’s modus operandi is to source seasonal produce and prepare them in a classic and minimalistic way. We both got the early winter delights tasting menu, a 4 course adventure based on fresh ingredients… yum!

Our first course was a persimmon prosciutto cold plate, a play on the traditional prosciutto-melon combo. It was really nice, the prosciutto was crispy and went well with the sweet persimmon. the greens also added a nice spicy note and all three together made for a really nice bite!

persimmon, prosciutto, watercress

Next was the fish course, which was the cod with peppers and beans in an AMAZING buttery sauce. I mean, it was literally in a pool of butter… which may sound very unhealthy and kinda gross, but the herbs and the peppers really made it seem light and sweet. Perfect for the perfectly cooked fish.

cod with canelli beans, escarole piquillo peppers and rosemary

Then came our meat dish, a charcoal grilled kobe skirt steak with kale. THIS WAS SOOOO GOOD. Mmm. Just awesome tender meat with a really nice smokiness. I guess those massages and beer diets do the cattle good. Oh, and we also got TRUFFLE FRIES that came out with the kobe beef. TRUFFLE FRIES! gah. Fries dipped in truffle mayo is the only way to eat fries. I’m spoiled now and will not eat them any other way (says the bourgeois pig: let them eat truffle!)

kobe steak with flowering kale, potato puree, bordelaise sauce

TRUFFLE FRIES

Lastly, the dessert. A spiced parsnip cake with maple ice cream and sherry soaked currants. A really nice home-y cake…. and made from parsnips! Pretty cool. And our waiter gave us a couple of glasses of a Moscato D’Asti to go with it – which is something we’ll have to pick up at binny’s sometime! It was almost like a honey wine but a lot more fruity! We both concurred on the fruity descriptor.

Maple & Parsnip dessert

It was a pretty nice ending to the meal… everything on the menu went so well with the winter theme and was just so tasty and satisfying. We ended the meal with a nice walk home through empty streets and snow. All this made for one very happy birthday night.